Rock jumping on the McKenzie River with Mason

Cousin time

DeLana, Mason and I drove to Sweet Home to see Shalene and Danny. Matt and Sean were in from Arizona, so we had cousin time. They took us to the river to fish and swim. Mason caught five fish.

I watched Mason baiting his hook on the rock by himself, and I knew that alone was worth the effort it took to get us here. I wanted my kids to grow up like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. We’ve never lived by a river, and we have taken advantage of the river in Roseburg.

I love how the rivers change when the water levels change. The trees are so thick.

This is further upriver. Mason and I did a rope swing and jumped off a rock to the left of this picture.  The water was so clear.  And so cold.

Sean, Matt, Shalene and me. It was worth the drive to spend time with them. Especially in such a beautiful place. Spending time is always worth the effort.

Fishing at Diamond Lake

Gavin took us to Diamond Lake to go fishing yesterday. We left our house at 4:30 am. That sucked, but everything else was great. I knew going with Gavin would be the only way to go. Here he is with Jaxon.

Mason was tuckered out after catching so many fish.

Showing off before we started to clean the fish.

Mason pulled in the biggest fish.

Cleaning the fish at the Diamond Lake cleaning station. We limited out and left with 25 fish. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Crabbing in Charleston

Mom and Dad came out from Utah to spend the weekend. Gavin took us to Charleston to go crabbing on Friday. We ended up with 3 Dungeness and 11 Red Rock crabs. We ate them tonight. It was great.

Proof of our success.

After crabbing we went to Bandon for seafood at the blue shack and agate time on the beach.

Fishin’ with Gavin and Sidnee

Gavin took me and Sidnee to the Umpqua River for free fishing weekend. This is looking downriver, about 102 miles from the coast. We went upriver to try for salmon, but the water was too shallow.

We went downriver and switched poles to try and catch shad. Sidnee was the first to catch a fish.

Sidnee ended up with four fish.

I think this was my second and biggest fish.

This was my last fish.  It wasn’t the biggest, but it put up the biggest fight.   It was fun to try fishing from a drift boat. We expected more boats on the river, so we were pleasantly surprised. We ended up with eight fish and at least that many that got off the hook. It was a great fishing day.

Yachats- part 2

The sea lions at Newport were a big hit. Some of them had a big bubble, so they didn’t like others trying to take up dock space.

This was one of the ships that was visiting several cities along the Oregon coast.

We spent time at the Hatfield Science Museum in Newport. It was definitely worth the visit. We had a great time with Steve and Amy and the new locations and adventures. We are all looking forward to the next trip.

Yachats- part 1

We spent the weekend at Yachats with Steve, Amy and their three kids.  This is us after we were attacked by waves getting down from a big rock at Smelt Sands.  We spent hours looking for agates.  This beach yielded the best results.

Most of these were green, so this pink one caught my eye.

This is Bob Meyer, a glass blower in Waldsport. We had a great time watching my make glass balls and vases.

I found the Bat Cave.

Beach day

Mason went to Eugene for a birthday party and the rest of us went to Bandon. This is the covered bridge on Highway 42.  There was a 50% chance of rain, but we lucked out.

We saw eight seals. They followed us as we walked along the beach. And they ducked underwater when I tried to take their picture.  That’s fraudulent.

It felt weird to only have four of us today. Six if we count the dogs.

There was a seal right over Sidnee’s left shoulder.  After this we headed to the blue shack for popcorn shrimp, calamari and clams.  It was fantastic.  It’s nice to live so close to the coast.

Hammocks at Susan Creek Falls

Harbor Freight just opened in Roseburg, so Mason, Jaxon and I got some glow-in-the-dark rope for our hammocks. We continued our quest to explore new waterfalls, hiking just under a mile to Susan Creek Falls. This is just passed Tioga bridge, which is one of our favorite spots. We set up our hammocks close to the waterfall. We wished he had a fire and some hot dogs, but it was fun to relax and listen to the water. Hammocks were our Christmas experience, and everyone seemed to like it. We will be adding more pictures and the year progresses and we explore other areas.

Snow day at Tioga bridge

We woke up to more snow this morning, so we went to Tioga bridge to check it out. Max and Bay loved it.

This is looking toward Bob’s Butte. We thought we left the snow when we left Utah, but apparently it followed us.